Religion in Hestrova
Hestrova is considerably unique in regards to religion. For the vast majority of the countries existence, even before it was called Hestrova, religion of any sort was and is practiced very little by the inhabitants. Religion, to Hestrovans, is believed to be any belief system that possess the two following components: * An individual or multiple people who are to be worshiped and prayed to. * A follower lives their life according to words or texts laid out by the creator/s of the religion or the being that is worshiped. Though Hestrova possesses a considerable number of mythologies due to the thousands of different tribes, most of which contain an origin to Hestrova or "all in sight", very few have ever contained an individual or people who instructed/expected people to live their lives by ways they described. In short, the vast majority of Hestrovans have not and do not follow a religion, in the Hestrovan sense of what religion is. As stated by Martin Shullen, a self-proclaimed ''Hestrovaphile'' and author, "Hestrova is a country where the vast majority of the people pay little to no attention to gods, creator's-of-all and meanings to life, because they have not been taught to believe in, pray to and worship such things. Hestrovans, for the most part, have always been more concerned with the well being of themselves, their families and their fellow tribes-folk than whether or not their existed a god. What was important to the people and what still is important is food, clean water, shelter and clothing to help them survive. These were things that had to be built, captured and cultivated; prayer and worship would not work." Regional Religion Religion in Hestrova is very much seen as a regional thing; a belief system unique to a specific area and one that is kept that way. Religion's are not taught outside of the region's in which they originate. This does not however mean that religions are not practiced outside of their respective regions. People from one region often continue practicing their "home religion" even when living in or traveling through another region. Within the western portion of the country, religion is almost non-existent. There exists one religion, Jaltakor, with 150,000 followers, located within the region of Romat Science & Facts Hestrova has shown itself to be a country accepting of science and facts. The 'non-religious' people of Hestrova are very accepting of the origin and history of the world in the context of science. To put it simply, the vast majority of Hestrovans are more willing to believe in what can be proven scientifically than what others believe can be explained by religion and faith. Despite this nature of belief, non-religious Hestrovans are in fact generally open to the idea of something that cannot be scientifically explained having an origin that in religious in nature (i.e. all was created by a god). However, the general consensus in the country is that the Hestrovan people do not place a huge importance on reasons as to why things are the way they are unless it calls for such. Put simply, the average Hestrovan will not spend much time if any looking for answers to the majority of things that do not concern them, if not all. No-Name Religions Unlike many foreign religions, the religions of Hestrova do not actually possess official names. When a Hestrovan gives the name of their religion, what they are actually giving is the name of the being/s they worship. The Big 5 There have been and do exist a number of religions, despite the nature of the majority of the population. There exist 5 "major" religions, each with at least 400,000 followers. Tribal Religions While religion in the west is almost non-existent, within Haldu and the southern regions of the east there exist a number of religions, accounting for an estimated 5,000,000 people. These religions are referred to as 'tribal religions' by most Hestrovans, as these religions are unique to individual tribes. "Bad" Religions Within Hestrova there exists a nationwide belief regarding religion and religious practitioners. While it is not considered wrong or bad for a religious person to praise their faith and to dismiss others, it is considered an evil practice to call for violence against believers of a different religion. Hurfam The followers of the god Hurfam are often considered the worst religious people within the entire country. The followers of Hurfam were instructed through the words of not only their god but by the heads of places of worship, to physically harm those who did not follow their religion. The believers, who occupied the region of Tomark within the west of lower Haldu, would routinely attack the people of neighboring regions. The most common form of attack was an ambush carried out by multiple followers of Hurfam. The followers would attack settlements of varying sizes, wielding guns, blades and explosives. They would shoot indiscriminately, gunning down and also cutting down anyone they saw. The attacks were always short, never lasting more than ten minutes. The practice of Hurfam was only ceased by the force of the Hestrovan military, upon the requests of many village and town leaders. Tomark was surrounded on all sides by the military, who used the opportunity to test out various chemical weapons recently developed. The entire region was bombarded with various chemicals and gases for over a week. The entire population was dead within 14 days.